Clothes drier



March 13, 1934 w E PUTNAM 1,950,997

CLOTHES DRIER Filed Sept. 24. 1932 3 Sheets-Sheet l March 13, 1934. w. E. PUTNAM CLOTHES DRIER Filed Sept. 24, 1932 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Idea-r Z9727? 72';

Pcavm m M March 13, 1934. w, E, PUTNAM CLOTHES DRIER Filed Sept. 24, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 1 aw, i W -9, rlllllllllllll III 1!! m m i f k wnww r p :1} Wm/i 9 y///// 11H. 1/! |\\\1\| M w J J w Patented Mar. 13, 1934 PATENT OFFICE CLOTHES DRIER Willis E. Putnam, Worcester, Mass.

Application September 24, 1932, Serial No. 634,736

3 Claims.

The principal object of this invention is to provide a wall clothes drier with means by which an element can be lowered. with the assistance of gravity to close the drier and thus make that operation easier than has been the case heretofore where the arms of the drier move upwardly for closing; to provide a simple construction with an advantageous leverage for the purpose of closii ing the arms of the drier into contracted space,

and to provide simple elements cooperating to close and open the drier easily and smoothly.

Other objects and advantages or" the invention will appear hereinafter. Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a plan of a wall clothes drier constructed in accordance with this invention,

showing the arms out flat in operative position;

Fig. 2 is a plan of the slide which is provided with means for pivotally supporting said arms; Fig. 3 is an edge elevation of said slide taken in a radial direction, as indicated by the arrow 3 in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a rear elevation of it, as indicated by the arrow 4 in Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a plan of a bracket which is fixed in position on the drier; Fig. 6 is an edge view of the same as indicated by the arrow 6 in Fig. 5; 30

Fig. 7 is a rear view of the same, as indicated by the arrow 7 in Fig. 5;

Fig. 8 is a rear elevation of the drier itself with all the parts in position and shown open,

taken in the direction of the arrow 8 in Fig. 1;

Fig. 9 is an edge View of the same showing means for holding the drier in adjusted vertical position;

Fig. 10 is a sectional view on the line 1010 of Fig. 1, and 40 Fig. 11 is an elevation of the leverage system by which the arms of the drier are spread and folded.

The device is shown as comprising a back board 10, which is fixed in vertical position on a notches or rests 11 whenever the cross rod is placed in that position.

It will be seen that by this member 14 the rods 13 are supported in one of the rests 11 and that the springs 15 hold the cross rod 14 back against the edge of the back board 10 so that it can he slid upwardly and will automatically come to a position to be held by any one of the rests 11 in which the rod 14 comes to be located. There are several of these rests along the front of the Wall board 10, and stop 9 for the rods 13.

The vertical rods 13 are separated from each other and each one, of course, is guided in the ways or guides 12, as stated. At the top these rods are connected by a bracket 16 having two ears 17 extending backwardly and provided with perforations for receiving the top ends of these rods 13 to which the ears are secured and which are offset outwardly just below that point. Thus this bracket 16 is fixed to the rods and constitutes a part of a vertical slide. This bracket is of a general semi-circular shape and is provided with a series of radial notches 18 and a semi-circular wire 19, which acts as a pivot wire. This wire is curved at both ends and held at these curves by a pair of pins 20 carried by the bracket 16. The semi-circular wire 19 passes over the several notches 13 and to this wire are pivoted a series of tie rods 21 adapted to extend down through these notches 18 when these tie rods extend downwardly.

The center or" the bracket 16 is perforated and a vertical rod 23 is secured with respect to the bracket through this perforation and held above it by a nut and below it by a collar 24.

This rod hangs down vertically and is supported It constitutes a part has a substantially semi-circular slide 26 extending horizontally. This plate is provided with radial seats or grooves 27 arranged around its circumference, which in cross section, extend through about a quarter circle, leaving fiat forwardly projecting surfaces 28 at the edge. Located at the center of these quarter circles is a semi-circular pivot wire 29 which is secured at its bent ends by pins 30 on the slide 26. On this wire 29 are pivoted arms 31 which constitute the clothes supporting element of the drier. They are free to swing out to a horizontal position but not beyond and up to a substantially vertical position, as shown in full and dotted lines in Fig. 10. The ties 21, previously mentioned, are individually pivoted at 32 to the tion, shown in full lines in Fig. 10, it will be seen that the slide 26 is forced upwardly as high as it will go and the bracket 16 is held stationary so that these tie rods 21 act as a means for holding up the arms 31 at a distance from their pivot wire 29.

Pivotally connected with the bottom of the slide 26 is a link 33 extending downwardly therefrom. This link is pivotally connected at its lower end with a lever 34 which has a handle 35, in this instance formed of a piece of fiat stock and constituting a T-shaped end on the lever arranged horizontally. The lower end of this lever 34 is pivoted to a pin 36 in the bottom of the rod 23.

Now, noticing the full line position in Fig. 10, it is quite obvious that the handle 35 can be turned forwardly and downwardly on the are,

as indicated by the arrow, to break the toggle formed by the lever and link and pull'down the slide 26. As the bracket 16 does not move downwardly, the result of this action is to pull the pivot wire 29 down to the dotted line position and consequently, through the links 21, swing the arms 31 upwardly to a substantially vertical position. When the drier is closed in this way the handle 35 has passed through an arc of nearly 180 and is in the position shown in dotted lines in this figure.

It will be seen therefore that the folding of the arms of the clothes drier is done by a simple and individual motion and through a very simple toggle arrangement. Furthermore, this action is assisted by gravity instead of being opposed thereby in the usual clothes drier and the pivots 36, 29 and 19 are all arranged substantially in vertical alignment so that the manipulation of the parts requires very much less work than has been the case usually.

Furthermore, there is no dead center over which the parts have to be carried and which might easily cause a reversal of the motion of the arms about their pivots. When the parts are brought to'the position shown in Fig. 10 in dotted lines, they are held there by forcing the handle 35' far enough inwardly to break the toggle inwardly so that, although the weight of the arms tends to swing them down they are locked in vertical position; In order to swing out they have to raise the slide 26 and the operating lever.

Although I have illustrated and described only a single form of the invention I am aware of the fact that modifications can be made therein by any person skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as expressed in the claims. Therefore, I do not wish to be limited in this respect otherwise than as set forth in the claims but what I do claim is:--

1. In a clothes drier, the combination of a vertically movable rod, a bracket fixed to the top thereof, a series of tie rods pivotally connected with said bracket and radiating therefrom throughout substantially a half circle, a slide on the rod, a series of clothes supporting arms pivotally connected to said slide at their inner ends and each one pivotally connected with one of said tie rods, a link depending from said slide, and a lever pivoted at the bottom of said rod and pivotally connected with said link, whereby the lever can be turned either to an upwardly extending position or a downwardly extending position, in the latter of which the arms will be folded back toward the bracket and in the former of which the arms will be projected outwardly into horizontal position.

2. In a clothes drier, the combination of a movable rod, a bracket fixed to the top thereof, a slide movable up and down on the rod, a link depending from the slide, a lever pivoted to the bottom of said link and to a point near the bottom of said rod and having a handle projecting above the bottom of said pivot when the lever is raised, whereby the operation of said lever will raise and lower the slide, arms pivoted on said slide, and means connected with said bracket for moving the arms to a horizontal position when the slide is raised and to an upwardly extending position when the slide islowered.

3. In a clothes drier, the combination of a stationary supporting member having ways at its opposite sides, a bracket having ears project ing" rearwardly and provided with projections ex tending into said ways to guide the bracket up and down, a vertical memberextending downwardly from said bracket and. fixed thereto, a slide on the vertical member, clothes supporting arms pivotally mounted on their inner ends on said slide, and means for holding the clothes supporting arms in' horizontalposition on the slide when raised and drawing them into an up wardly extending vertical position when. the slide is lowered.

WILLIS E. PUTNAM. 

